Gold holds near 2-week low; focus on BOJ, FED meetings
Gold was little changed on Tuesday, trading near last session's lowest level in almost two weeks, with investors focused on closely watched policy meetings of U.S. and Japanese central banks.
* Spot gold dropped on Monday to $1,228.9, lowest since March 2.
SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 1.08 percent to 790.14 tonnes on Monday from 798.77 tonnes on Friday. In terms of ounces, holdings fell to 25,403,927.26 ounces from 25,681,155.43
Gold prices ended the U.S. day session solidly lower Monday, on a corrective and profit-taking pullback following Friday’s push to a 13-month high. Improved risk appetite in the marketplace early this week is a bearish element for safe-haven gold. April Comex gold was last down $16.30 at $1,243.00 an ounce. May Comex silver was last down $0.105 at $15.50 an ounce.
The key “outside markets” were also in a bearish posture for the precious metals markets today, as the U.S. dollar index was higher and crude oil prices were lower.
Global stock markets were mostly higher Monday, as investor risk appetite in the market place has returned, at least on this day.
Arguably the most important data point of the week will be the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that begins Tuesday and ends Wednesday afternoon with a statement and a press conference from Fed Chair Janet Yellen. No changes in U.S. monetary policy are expected at this meeting, but as always traders and investors will be closing parsing the FOMC statement for clues on Fed policy moves in the coming weeks or months. The market place believes there is about a 50-50 chance the Fed will raise U.S. interest rates at its June meeting.
Technically, April gold futures prices closed nearer the session low. Prices are still in a three-month-old uptrend on the daily bar chart and bulls have the firm overall near-term technical advantage. Gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at last week’s high of $1,287.80. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at 1,225.00. First resistance is seen at $1,250.00 and then at today’s high of $1,261.90. First support is seen at last week’s low of $1,237.50 and then at $1,230.00. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 7.0
Reference: Reuters, Kitco
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